2018 Honda Civic Si Underwhelms With Just 192 lb. ft. of Torque

That leaves a huge gap between the Si and Type R.

Honda seems to be off to a good start with the current generation Civic. Consumers have responded well to the model, praising it for its drivability and practicality (we saw that one coming). It features a turbocharged engine for the first time in the Civic's history, making a respectable 177 lb. ft. in the Sport application. This is the same engine that will find its way into the Civic Si, and according to a recent leak on CivicX, it will produce 192 lb. ft. of torque in performance guise, a particularly small increase over the Sport trim. Because of that, we can't help but wonder why Honda is leaving such a large space between the performance of the Si and Type R for the American market.

It's even a small number compared to its rivals. The Civic Si consistently finds itself in the same class of the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST, two cars that also feature small displacement turbo motors. The GTI produces 248 lb. ft. from it's 2.0L while the ST makes an even bigger 270 lb. ft., which is sort of shaming the Si, isn't it? After all, torque is supposed to be an advantage of turbocharging. It's an increase of 18 lb. ft. from the previous generation Si, but we're still scratching our heads.

Honda may decide to even out the competition by starting out at a lower cost. Although they haven't released pricing for the 2018 Civic Si yet, it's likely that Honda will slide it in underneath the ~$25,000 GTI and Focus ST. Horsepower numbers are yet to be announced as well, so they may try to narrow the difference in that category too.

Honda

Expect to hear more once Honda officially releases power figures for the forthcoming Si. Then, we will get more details on the model and see how it stacks up against its low-cost performance competition.